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Goop’s Netflix series: It’s so much worse than I expected and I can’t unsee it

Vulvas, psychics, and junk science, oh my. I watched so you don't have to.

Enlarge/ This is the exact moment in the goop lab's third episode in which Gwyneth Paltrow admits she doesn't know the difference between a vagina and a vulva. She's making a hand gesture to say what she thought the "vagina" was.

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With the goop lab hitting Netflix today, January 24th, we've resurfaced this review (originally published January 17th). And as we originally said, this review contains detailed information about the Netflix series with Gwyneth Paltrow. If you plan to watch the show (please, don't) and do not wish to know details in advance, this is not the review for you. Normally, we would refer to such information as "spoilers," but in our editorial opinion, nothing in this series is spoil-able.

In the third episode of Goop's Netflix series, a female guest remarks that we women are seen as "very dangerous when we're knowledgeable." [Ep. 3, 33:35]

"Tell me about it," Gwyneth Paltrow knowingly replies amid "mm-hmms"—as if she has a first-hand understanding of this.

Further Reading

But after watching just a few minutes of any of the six episodes of the goop lab—or knowing pretty much anything about her pseudoscience-peddling "contextual commerce" company "Goop"—one might be skeptical that Paltrow has ever borne any such burden of knowledge in her life.

In fact, earlier in that same episode, we learn that the 47-year-old actor didn't even know what a vagina is.

"It's our favorite subject—vaginas!" Paltrow proclaims gleefully [Ep.3, 3:05]. Then the same guest, feminist sex educator Betty Dodson, corrects her: "The vagina is the birth canal—only. You want to talk about the vulva, which is the clitoris, and the inner lips, and all that good shit around it."

Paltrow giggles before responding, "The vagina is only the birth canal? Oh! See, I'm getting an anatomy lesson that I didn't—I thought that the vagina was the whole..."

"No, no, no, no," Dodson cuts her off.

To be fair, a lot of women might not be clear on this particular anatomical point. But for Paltrow, who claims to help empower women while touting dubious and dangerous products and treatments for said body part—ahem, vaginal steaming, cough, jade eggs—you'd hope she had a tight understanding of what a vagina is—or isn't in this case.

But sadly, she didn't. And throughout the rest of the series, her ignorance and lack of critical thinking skills are on full display as a parade of questionable "experts" and ridiculous claims about health and science march across the small screen unchallenged.

(To be clear, Dodson was not among the dubious guests I'm referring to here; she is knowledgeable and respectable and was probably the most interesting and informative guest on the show.)

The show overall

I'll go through each episode in more detail below, but for those who want to spare themselves from the bulk of the absurdity, I'll summarize here:

In so many ways, the goop lab with Gwyneth Paltrow is exactly what you'd expect based on what we already know about the Goop brand. The series provides a platform for junk science, gibberish, and unproven health claims from snake-oil-salesmen guests. It's a platform on which respected, trained medical experts are not considered the authorities on health and medical topics; where logic and critical thinking are enemies of open-mindedness; where anecdotes about undefined health improvements are considered evidence for specific medical treatment claims; where the subjective experiences of a few select individuals are equivalent to the results of randomized, controlled clinical trials; and where promoting unproven, potentially dangerous health claims is a means to empower women.

Paltrow and Loehnen sit in Goop's headquarters for an interview.

Netflix

Members of the "Goop gang" convene in Jamaica to convince themselves that magic mushrooms are a crucial part of a therapeutic journey.

Netflix

This woman isn't crying because she's on the goop lab. Instead, the tears are apparently coming on because she took a dose of psilocybin as part of a "therapy retreat" in Jamaica.

Netflix

A Gooper lies on the floor while tripping.

Netflix

These are often paired with anecdotes about participants in limited clinical trials. We hear their success stories without context about how the associated study at-large turned out or whether any positive results came with side effects or issues with bias.

Netflix

A Gooper gets a hug while tripping.

Netflix

Just another day in Jamaica, where Goopers gather to take shrooms, cry, and hug.

Netflix

The problem with this boilerplate statement is that most of the goop lab is full of one-sided, anecdotal claims that standard Western medical practice is all wrong. Right or wrong, that is most certainly a type of "medical advice," Gwyneth and co.

Netflix

But, beyond all of that, the show is just, well, boring.

Each episode uses the exact same structure. Each presents one of six health topics, which are (in order): psychedelics; "iceman" Wim Hof's breathing and cold-treatment method; female pleasure; anti-aging; energy healing; and psychics.

In each episode, you see Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop's chief content officer, Elise Loehnen, interview a couple of people involved in the episode's topic. The interviews take place in an airy, stylishly decorated office at Goop's Santa Monica headquarters. Interspersed between snippets of those interviews, you see groups of Goop-employee volunteers subject themselves to some therapy or experience related to the episode's topic. The interview dialogue from Goop headquarters is used to essentially narrate the Goopers' experiences. The Goopers' results are, in turn, intended to back up whatever claims the interviewees make.

It's a tiring structure for six straight episodes, and it's often not done well. The pacing is slow at times; some of the Goopers' experiences are just not engaging and seem like filler; some of their personal stories are introduced at the start of episodes and then inexplicably abandoned at the end; the interviews at Goop headquarters can seem drawn out and dry; and there are random tangents about Gwyneth Paltrow's life and the office environment at Goop headquarters.

Even if you're interested in the topics, getting through the episodes can feel like a slog—and they're each only 30-35 minutes long.

It feels like the momentum of each episode is supposed to be driven by anticipation of how the Goopers' experiences match what the interviewees are saying. But we hardly ever get satisfying conclusions on that front—and we wouldn't be convinced even if we did. Instead, the show seems to move each episode along more by leaning on shock content that might best appeal to middle schoolers—showing glimpses of a woman having an orgasm, a Goop staffer getting a face lift using string that pulls her smile toward her ears, and a group of Goopers tripping on mushrooms.

Meanwhile, the goop lab makes no effort to question or critically evaluate any of its claims. There are no fact checks or counterpoints offered. There's no mention of any criticism and little to no warnings of potential harms.

In all, it's a show that you can safely skip. But, if you still want to know more about why the goop lab is so bad, let's run through the six episodes.

Goop on shrooms

The first episode covers psychedelics and their potential to improve mental health. Paltrow and Loehnen sit down with Will Siu (a psychiatrist who supports "psychedelic Integration" in therapies) and Mark Haden (executive director of MAPS Canada, which is an affiliate of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a nonprofit created in 1985 to advocate for the medical benefits and use of psychedelic drugs, such as MDMA and LSD). Siu received training at MAPS.

Further Reading

The episode references the fact that reputable academic researchers—many associated with MAPS—are exploring in clinical trials whether certain psychedelics can aid in addressing specific mental-health conditions, such as clinical depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The early trials on these subjects have provided some positive results.

“Being the person that people perceive me to be is inherently traumatic.”

For instance, in 2016 the Food and Drug Administration greenlighted the first Phase III trial to assess whether or 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)—known as "molly" or "ecstasy"—can improve the symptoms of PTSD. And treatments with psilocybin, the psychedelic component of "magic" mushrooms, has yielded positive results in small trials on people struggling with depression.

While that research is legitimate and interesting, the Goop episode approached the topic in the dumbest possible way: a group of four Goop employees hop on a plane to Jamaica to trip on mushrooms. Two of the Goopers weren't trying to address mental health. One Gooper said she wanted to feel more creative and like her "authentic self," and Loehnen, who went, said she wanted a "psychospiritual experience." The other two were trying to "process some personal trauma."

While the clinical trials are evaluating specific drug doses to treat well-defined symptoms in tightly controlled, weeks-long programs, the Goopers drank mushroom tea once, in a "more ceremonial setting," surrounded by what they described as "psychedelic elders."

Further Reading

You'd think watching people trip on mushrooms might be fun. It was, in fact, boring. You mostly just see them lying on the floor, laughing or crying to themselves. The episode shows little else of what goes on and hardly any dialogue among the "elders" and the Goopers.

Meanwhile, the interview back at Goop headquarters starts rambling, with discussion around vague mental health issues, the value of "connecting people," harmful societal norms, and how basically everyone is suffering. Paltrow notes at one point that she, too, suffers mental-health problems despite her wealth and status, and she adds that "being the person that people perceive me to be is inherently traumatic." [Ep.1, 29:00] Poor Gwyneth.

At the end of the episode, some of the Goopers talk about how the experience was intense—well, yeah. We don't hear back from the woman who wanted to be more creative, so we can only hope things worked out for her. But one of the Goopers processing trauma (in his case, trauma of having an emotionally distant father) said in a final one-on-one discussion with Paltrow that he felt more of an "openness" after the experience. He thanked Paltrow for letting him go.

My girlfriend agrees! She uses it on her vagina every day and says it transforms her vaginal energy. I'm thinking about using it on my anus. It's been really itchy lately, and I think my anal energy is unbalanced.

The vaginal eggs/steaming, the vampire facial stuff...this is wacky enough that it's not that much of a threat to most, except the very vulnerable or very gullible.

Chiropractic 'practice' though...gets a lot of acceptance pretty close to the mainstream. Anyone going to make a case as to why this shouldn't be treated in exactly the same way as the other stuff?

Because there are a lot of people out there who wouldn't subscribe to much of the utter crap goop peddles while still going in for this sort of thing.

The problem is that chiropractics is not at all science-based like conventional medicine is and chiropractors have no training in science. They also have an unfortunate tendency to believe in and espouse non-scientific "theories" and treatments.

In other words, chiropractors don't know how to distinguish between scientific medicine and quackery. Many of them become quacks. The ideas at the root of chiropractics are not rational, so if you believe in them you're predisposed to accept other irrational ideas IMO.

I feel you're far better off going to a massage therapist if you have lower back pain. It's as likely that you will find some relief of pain, and less likely that harm will be done.

Not quite that simple. Some pain is about bones misaligned on their joints. A massage isn't going to fix it.

Tried a massage - same result. The woman actually said that this may not be just muscles being tense, but trying to compensate for the skull not sitting straight on the top vertebra. She recommended a chiropractor for that.

Since nothing else was working, I figured what the heck. He took an actual x-ray of the skull, and it was quite apparent that the skull was tilted a few degrees to one side, thanks to some lead points of reference and guidelines on the x-ray image itself.

He proceeded to work about 2-3 minutes to (very carefully, mind you) move my skull atop my vertebra. I could actually hear a slight squeaking as he worked.

The end-result? Immediate reduction of pain, an odd sensation that my skull was tilted to the side, and a complete and permanent disappearance of the pain in my neck and shoulders.

I've been to other chiropractors since, and this is what I've learned:- there are plenty of people who don't know what they're doing, to the point where I have to explain to them what I need done.- there is definitely an association with complete quackery in the vast majority of them. Some buy less into it, some buy more into it.- The only thing they can help with is actual joint repositioning.- Multiple trips to the chiropractor are only necessary if I don't actually do the physical therapy necessary to keep my joints in place (yay hypermobile joints).

The average chiropractor is pretty worthless. There are a few who do things that feel like absolute miracles - but even those also do things that are absolute nonsense.

Personally, I go when I know that I need a very specific adjustment, and then I go to very specific ones. But when I do need a chiropractor, I need someone with that specific skillset. A massage therapist or physical therapist isn't enough (and I've been to a few of each one).

I used to handle the IT for a chiropractor. While I was more than willing to take him on as a client, I still thought it was a bunch of bs until I got t-boned at 45mph by a texter/driver. Long after the ortho doc had discharged me, I still had pain between my shoulder blades and in my neck. I asked my primary care physician (also a client and a friend) about chiropractic medicine. He said that in his experience, chiropractors tend to follow one of two principles-either they are practitioners of complementary medicine or alternative medicine.

Complementary medicine type chiropractors tend to be very good. They do not try to invade the expertise of say, internal medicine specialists. They stick to bone and muscle pain relief, and often study sports medicine and/or massage therapy as well. Alternative medicine practitioners are more likely to buy into the snake oil salesman persona. They make ridiculous claims to be able to provide relief for a wide variety of ailments.

Since I had seen my chiropractor client reading actual medical journals, and since my blue cross plan listed him as a provider, I took the chance. I let him work on me and was pleased with the results. He recommended I get a different pillow (made a huge difference), and was able to give me temporary (6-8 weeks) relief from my back pain. So, in certain circumstances I think chiropractors can be actual medicine. He had a degree in chiropractic medicine from a good school with an actual accredited medical school, so I think that matters a lot when judging one chiropractor against another.

The vaginal eggs/steaming, the vampire facial stuff...this is wacky enough that it's not that much of a threat to most, except the very vulnerable or very gullible.

Chiropractic 'practice' though...gets a lot of acceptance pretty close to the mainstream. Anyone going to make a case as to why this shouldn't be treated in exactly the same way as the other stuff?

Because there are a lot of people out there who wouldn't subscribe to much of the utter crap goop peddles while still going in for this sort of thing.

“Mainstream” chiropractic includes a lot of stuff about curing serious illness and promoting the manipulation of newborn infants. Some of these practices have resulted in deaths, and yet they still get treated like real Doctors.

Even if you’re just after having your spine manipulated for some musculoskeletal problem, you’re probably better off with a physiotherapist instead.

I don't know what's worse, people like her or the others that trust traditional medicine 100%. You're kidding yourselves if you think all natural remedies are ineffective and dangerous. Have a candid conversation with serious physician and they'll tell you it's a balance of both that work best...the general public is clueless.

Q: What do you call 'traditional'/'alternate' medicine that has been demonstrated to work in controlled and repeatable trials?A: Medicine.

The referring to the entire female genitalia as 'the vagina' is one of my pet peeves. Seems to be a US-ism. I learned the formal names/functions for the various parts in primary-school sex-ed (something that I understand is often not a thing in the US, at any schooling stage).

It's a bit like if a guy were to refer to the penis, scrotum, testicles and prostate collectively as his 'penis'.

Ars readers like to stay informed, and that includes staying informed on what the ignorant are aguing and/or what snake oil salespeople are trying to sell to the ignorant.

Quote:

this also seems a bit like a "look how much smarter/superior we are!" circle jerk to attract site traffic.

No, it informs people who don't want to watch the whole show, or the show at all, about what the show tries to assert, and the flaws in its assertions and how it tries to present them. It also does it in a humorous, entertaining way.

An article with a more neutral tone that goes into detail about how and why this sort of pseudoscience and woo is damaging to public discourse and respect for science

How is calling the show "pseudoscience and woo" and that it's "damaging to public discourse and respect for science" neutral? I think you just mean "less mocking," but a more serious negative article still would've been negative.

The show has an episode of psychics fer cryin out loud. It deserves all the mocking it gets.

How many times to I have to say that none of what I said was about appearing neutral? Jesus fucking christ.

I don't know where this "fucking" has been coming from lately. Have pastors been using this? Back in Palestine 2000 year ago, people were named patronymically (Jesus son of Joseph) or matronymically (Jesus son of Mary). Has some new historical research revealed Jesus' middle name to be "Fucking"? Is there some newly discovered ossuary or something?

Ars needs to get on this.

As any respectable bible historian will tell you, his middle name was actually “Haploid”.*

(* Not original to me, and I don’t remember who said it originally, otherwise I would credit them here.)

The referring to the entire female genitalia as 'the vagina' is one of my pet peeves. Seems to be a US-ism. I learned the formal names/functions for the various parts in primary-school sex-ed (something that I understand is often not a thing in the US, at any schooling stage).

It's a bit like if a guy were to refer to the penis, scrotum, testicles and prostate collectively as his 'penis'.

Where do you think the ten inch average comes from? Whittling down to the technically correct shrinks things down to (unadmittable) size.

The referring to the entire female genitalia as 'the vagina' is one of my pet peeves. Seems to be a US-ism. I learned the formal names/functions for the various parts in primary-school sex-ed (something that I understand is often not a thing in the US, at any schooling stage).

It's a bit like if a guy were to refer to the penis, scrotum, testicles and prostate collectively as his 'penis'.

Gotta be honest here...nary a guy would care. We'd just tug the part that feels good and not worry too much about the rest. We are much simpler creatures.

Have you not played Guild Wars 2? It's Ley Lines not Lay Lines. You certainly don't need goop to find them..

Anyway.. as Anthony Hopkins knows most celebrities are stupid. Paltrow is one of the smarter ones but that's not saying much. Celebrities are basically people who got by on their looks and some ability to play pretend.

They are not selected by intelligence for their profession. But because of their looks and their ability to play pretend they have a huge amount of influence that they can peddle.

It's not much different that athletes who are privileged via genes as well.. and they sell their success as being related to their workout routines or diets.

The real attraction here is the naive belief that anyone can do anything if they just discover the secrets that good looking or athletic persons have already discovered. It's a pretty good racket to be honest.

I actually unsubscribed from the service when I heard about this was coming. I really don't feel like supporting anything like this. I haven't decided on a new service yet though, hardly have time to watch much as it is.

In a pre-Witcher world I would have too.... with it existing and kicking ass....I am just too weak...

I don't buy why anyone 'has' to cancel their Netflix. Controversial shows/content has existed since the beginning of time, would people cancel cable subscriptions because it bundled channels showing content you deemed questionable? Do people cancel their internet service next? I get that goop is garbage and have no qualms pouring scorn on anyone who follows the network, but applying 'cancel culture' here sounds ridiculous IMO. It's a free world, you're obviously welcome to vote with your dollars, but there's perpetually been demand for 'alternative' lifestyles/products and it's well within the wheelhouse of any entertainment company to curate content exploring these.*

*unless, of course, lives are lost or public safety is gravely threatened (think anti vaxing etc.).

I actually unsubscribed from the service when I heard about this was coming. I really don't feel like supporting anything like this. I haven't decided on a new service yet though, hardly have time to watch much as it is.

In a pre-Witcher world I would have too.... with it existing and kicking ass....I am just too weak...

I don't buy why anyone 'has' to cancel their Netflix. Controversial shows/content has existed since the beginning of time, would people cancel cable subscriptions because it bundled channels showing content you deemed questionable? Do people cancel their internet service next? I get that goop is garbage and have no qualms pouring scorn on anyone who follows the network, but applying 'cancel culture' here sounds ridiculous IMO. It's a free world, you're obviously welcome to vote with your dollars, but there's perpetually been demand for 'alternative' lifestyles/products and it's well within the wheelhouse of any entertainment company to curate content exploring these.*

*unless, of course, lives are lost or public safety is gravely threatened (think anti vaxing etc.).

Ars readers like to stay informed, and that includes staying informed on what the ignorant are aguing and/or what snake oil salespeople are trying to sell to the ignorant.

Quote:

this also seems a bit like a "look how much smarter/superior we are!" circle jerk to attract site traffic.

No, it informs people who don't want to watch the whole show, or the show at all, about what the show tries to assert, and the flaws in its assertions and how it tries to present them. It also does it in a humorous, entertaining way.

An article with a more neutral tone that goes into detail about how and why this sort of pseudoscience and woo is damaging to public discourse and respect for science

How is calling the show "pseudoscience and woo" and that it's "damaging to public discourse and respect for science" neutral? I think you just mean "less mocking," but a more serious negative article still would've been negative.

The show has an episode of psychics fer cryin out loud. It deserves all the mocking it gets.

How many times to I have to say that none of what I said was about appearing neutral? Jesus fucking christ.

I don't know where this "fucking" has been coming from lately. Have pastors been using this? Back in Palestine 2000 year ago, people were named patronymically (Jesus son of Joseph) or matronymically (Jesus son of Mary). Has some new historical research revealed Jesus' middle name to be "Fucking"? Is there some newly discovered ossuary or something?

Ars needs to get on this.

I recall Bart Ehrman talking about how many of his students thought Jesus’s last name was Christ.

Ars readers like to stay informed, and that includes staying informed on what the ignorant are aguing and/or what snake oil salespeople are trying to sell to the ignorant.

Quote:

this also seems a bit like a "look how much smarter/superior we are!" circle jerk to attract site traffic.

No, it informs people who don't want to watch the whole show, or the show at all, about what the show tries to assert, and the flaws in its assertions and how it tries to present them. It also does it in a humorous, entertaining way.

An article with a more neutral tone that goes into detail about how and why this sort of pseudoscience and woo is damaging to public discourse and respect for science

How is calling the show "pseudoscience and woo" and that it's "damaging to public discourse and respect for science" neutral? I think you just mean "less mocking," but a more serious negative article still would've been negative.

The show has an episode of psychics fer cryin out loud. It deserves all the mocking it gets.

How many times to I have to say that none of what I said was about appearing neutral? Jesus fucking christ.

I don't know where this "fucking" has been coming from lately. Have pastors been using this? Back in Palestine 2000 year ago, people were named patronymically (Jesus son of Joseph) or matronymically (Jesus son of Mary). Has some new historical research revealed Jesus' middle name to be "Fucking"? Is there some newly discovered ossuary or something?

Ars needs to get on this.

Jesus isn't a valid Aramaic name to begin with. It was either Jeshua or Joshua. But ending a name with that sound in Greek is feminine, and there's no "sh" sound in ancient Greek, either, so it converted to Jesua phonetically, than was changed to Jesus to be masculine.

My name is Rmm200 and I am a Bethaholic. I will read anything Beth writes.But this one was hard... Only decent pun I could find was "Climax of the series".Mostly I felt sad for Beth having to sit through this awful series.Beth you could have done a far better job with CES Sex Toys, and brightened our lives to boot.Goop is simply depressing. Looking forward to your next event that brings you better material.

Have you ever tried browsing the "documentary" tag on Netflix? It has long since peddled bullshit, although probably never quite so prominently.

Also, it's interesting that the vagina/vulva goofup is featured ... *on her own programme*. This isn't some sort of clever ambush question by a skeptical interviewer. She *choose* to display her complete ignorance (even I know the difference between a vagina and a vulva, and I've never owned one) on her own programme.

My girlfriend agrees! She uses it on her vagina every day and says it transforms her vaginal energy. I'm thinking about using it on my anus. It's been really itchy lately, and I think my anal energy is unbalanced.

Hint: for an even better experience, try the one WITHOUT PUMICE. (No endorsement just a suggestion from experience in the shop and some imagination.)

Generally speaking, if you're not living in an area where the fish is caught and sold within a few days, flash freezing is as close to fresh as it's possible to get.

Goop is headquartered in Santa Monica, CA. Getting fresh fish shouldn't be an issue. Also, whether it's "as close to fresh as possible," it's still frozen, so should likely be cheaper than any fresh option, if available.

I wouldn't be surprised if it cost that much because they shop at some kind of elite members-only store that can charge prices like that and get away with it because the people who shop there no longer have a concept of the value of money.

This is most likely the answer. The store put a high markup on the salmon because they know their customers are going to pay for it anyway.

A key element is that fish degrades fast when butchered, and flash freezing preserves it really well with the ice formation being extremely small, making it, quality-wise, as good or better than fresh in many cases. It's also safer for sashimi/sushi.

I don't have any problem with fish that was flash-frozen after being caught. What I don't like is that stores then thaw it and sell it as "refreshed." I'd rather buy it still frozen and then I can thaw it myself when I want to.